


Healing Hearts

by flickawhip



Category: Rebellion (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-11
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-12-14 04:18:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11775348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flickawhip/pseuds/flickawhip
Summary: Nelly finds Dolly alone...





	Healing Hearts

Nelly Cosgrave had always tried to be fair, but she had risked everything after the Easter Rising to hide the girl. Now Frances was gone and she was left to put her home back together alone. She didn’t mind it, she was used to hard work, but she hated that her home was so easy to put back together when other things were not so easily mended.  
She had pieced her home back together in silence, mending what she could, hiding further pain behind smoothed clothing and a tidy house. She had been out, seeking the final touches, when her gaze fell on the other woman. A woman she had once loved, and dared to care for... 

The woman was thin, almost wasting away, and her dark hair was tangled, smoothed into a simple style but not tidy. There was pain in her eyes, eyes that were still as bright and stormy as they had been when Nelly first met her. Now the turmoil in the woman’s dark brown-green coloured eyes broke Nelly’s heart. 

“Dolly?”

She had smiled slightly when the woman looked at her, the smile falling from her lips when the woman seemed to stumble, she had moved to catch Dolly’s wrists, pulling her close and holding her tight, her voice soft.

“Easy Love... Come, I’ll walk you home...”

She had walked slowly, keeping Dolly tucked to her side, the brush of Dolly’s neatly trimmed clothes against her own rougher skirts had rasped slightly but she didn’t mind. She had never cared about class divides, she cared only to see Dolly safely home. Dolly’s son was gone, and her husband had died. The daughter, it seemed, also was to die. She was not supposed to know, but she did. She had always found ways to know what was happening to Dolly. 

Dolly had not spoken, or cried, until they were safely locked away, Dolly clinging weakly to her when she made to leave. Nelly found it impossible to refuse Dolly her touch, or care, although she smiled sadly when she moved to undress Dolly, taking in just how thin the other woman was, how painfully clear it was she couldn’t cope. She had moved to dress Dolly in her nightdress, gently guiding her to the bed. She had moved away only long enough to remove her outer clothes, choosing to leave what little she had beneath on as she moved to settle with Dolly, letting the woman settle into her side. 

Dolly’s past had spilled from her then, words upon words falling from her, tears coming easily. Nelly had listened in silence, then, when Dolly spoke of her fear of being left alone, speaking softly.

“You won’t be alone love, I promise...”

If nothing else, the Rising had given her reason to stay close and truly love Dolly.


End file.
